The D.I.C.E. Award for Role-Playing Game of the Year is an award presented annually by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences during the D.I.C.E. Awards. "This award honors a title, single-player or multi-player, where an individual assumes the role of one or more characters and develops those characters in terms of abilities, statistics, and/or traits as the game progresses. Gameplay involves exploring, acquiring resources, solving puzzles, and interacting with player or non-player characters in the persistent world. Through the player's actions, his/her virtual characters' statistics or traits demonstrably evolve throughout the game".[1] All active creative/technical, business, and affiliate members of the Academy are qualified to vote for this category.[2] The award initially had separate awards for console games and computer games at the 1st Annual Interactive Achievement Awards in 1998, with the first winners being Final Fantasy VII for console and Dungeon Keeper for computer. Throughout the history of this category, there have been numerous mergers and changes for role-playing related games. The current version was established at the 21st Annual D.I.C.E. Awards in 2018, which was awarded to Nier: Automata.
D.I.C.E. Award for Role-Playing Game of the Year | |
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Country | United States |
Presented by | Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences |
First awarded | 1998 |
Currently held by | Baldur's Gate 3 |
Website | www |
The award's most recent winner is Baldur's Gate 3, developed and published by Larian Studios.
Initially the Interactive Achievement Awards had separate categories for Console Role-Playing Game of the Year and Computer Role-Playing Game of the Year.[3] The 1999 awards ceremony featured genre specific Online awards, including Online Role-Playing Game of the Year.[4] There was only one Online Game of the Year category in 2000. The console and PC Role-Playing game categories were merged with the Adventure game categories at the 2000 awards ceremony;[5] this was most likely because the previous console adventure game winners also won the award for console role-playing, which were Final Fantasy VII in 1998[6][7] and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in 1999.[8] In the following year, the Adventure game category was eventually merged with the Action game category, so a separate award for Role-Playing games resumed.[9][10] In addition, an online category for Massive Multiplayer/Persistent World Game of the Year was introduced in 2001.[11][12] This may have been the result of the MMORPGs Ultima Online and EverQuest winning Online Game of the Year in 1998 and 2000, respectively.[6][13] Starting in 2005, genre-specific awards would no longer have separate awards for console and computer games, so it simply became Role-Playing Game of the Year.[14] In 2010, Role-Playing Game of the Year was merged with Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year, since most massively multiplayer online games were MMORPGs.[15] The award would later be simplified back to Role-Playing Game of the Year in 2018.[16]
Indicates the winner |
Square Enix has received the most nominations as a publisher, including nominations before the merger of SquareSoft and Enix. Electronic Arts has published the most award winners for the RPG genre, which included titles under collaboration with SquareSoft before their merger with Enix. Sega has published the most nominees without winning a single award.
SquareSoft/Square Enix has developed the most finalists in this category, while BioWare has developed the most winners. Level-5 has developed the most nominations without a single win. BioWare, SquareSoft and Square Enix are the only developers to have consecutive wins for RPG awards. ArenaNet, Blizzard Entertainment, SquareSoft, Square Enix, and Electronic Arts are the only publishers with back-to-back wins for RPG awards.
In 2003, BioWare became the only developer to win both Console Role-Playing Game of the Year and Computer Role-Playing Game of the Year within the same year with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which was published by LucasArts. Black Isle Studios has also published the winners for console and computer RPGs in 2002, but with different developers: Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance for console, developed by Snowblind Studios, and Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal for computer, developed by BioWare. NCSoft has published both games that had tied for Massive Multiplayer/Persistent World Game of the Year in 2006.
Developer | Nominations | Wins |
---|---|---|
BioWare | 15 | 12 |
SquareSoft/Square Enix | 19 | 5 |
Blizzard Entertainment | 10 | 4 |
Bethesda Game Studios | 6 | 4 |
FromSoftware | 5 | 2 |
ArenaNet | 4 | 2 |
Sony Online Entertainment[d] | 3 | 2 |
Nintendo EAD | 2 | 2 |
Turbine | 6 | 1 |
Obsidian Entertainment | 4 | 1 |
Capcom | 3 | 1 |
Intelligent Systems | 3 | 1 |
Larian Studios | 3 | 1 |
Mythic Entertainment | 3 | 1 |
Origin Systems | 3 | 1 |
Blizzard North | 2 | 1 |
Level-5 | 8 | 0 |
CD Projekt Red | 5 | 0 |
Black Isle Studios | 4 | 0 |
CCP Games | 4 | 0 |
Atlus | 3 | 0 |
Cryptic Studios | 3 | 0 |
Game Freak | 3 | 0 |
Gas Powered Games | 3 | 0 |
inXile Entertainment | 3 | 0 |
Konami | 3 | 0 |
Eidos-Montréal | 2 | 0 |
Ion Storm | 2 | 0 |
Lionhead Studios | 2 | 0 |
Matrix Software | 2 | 0 |
Media.Vision | 2 | 0 |
Monolith Soft | 2 | 0 |
Namco Tales Studio | 2 | 0 |
Sierra On-Line | 2 | 0 |
Sonic Team | 2 | 0 |
Troika Games | 2 | 0 |
Publisher | Nominations | Wins |
---|---|---|
Electronic Arts | 17 | 9 |
SquareSoft/Square Enix | 21 | 5 |
Microsoft Game Studios | 14 | 4 |
Blizzard Entertainment | 11 | 4 |
Bethesda Softworks | 7 | 4 |
Nintendo | 16 | 3 |
Sony Computer/Interactive Entertainment | 15 | 3 |
ArenaNet | 9 | 3 |
Black Isle Studios | 4 | 3 |
Namco/Bandai Namco | 10 | 2 |
Atari | 8 | 2 |
LucasArts | 3 | 2 |
Vivendi Universal Games | 3 | 2 |
Larian Studios | 3 | 1 |
Capcom | 2 | 1 |
Sega | 8 | 0 |
Atlus | 5 | 0 |
CD Projekt | 5 | 0 |
Eidos Interactive/Square Enix Europe | 5 | 0 |
Interplay Productions/Entertainment | 4 | 0 |
Konami | 3 | 0 |
Sierra On-Line | 3 | 0 |
Activision | 2 | 0 |
Techland Publishing | 2 | 0 |
The 3DO Company | 2 | 0 |
Ubisoft | 2 | 0 |
The Dungeons & Dragons franchise has won the most awards in this category, which consists of multiple gaming sub-series based on the fantasy setting (such as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights). Final Fantasy is the most nominated franchise. Deus Ex, Eve Online, and Pokémon have received the most nominations without winning a single award. EverQuest, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age have won every single time they have been nominated.
There have been a few franchises with back-to-back wins:
Numerous games receives multiple nominations, mostly for expansion packs.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is the only game to win both console and computer RPG awards in the same year in 2004. Baldur's Gate (as a sub-series of Dungeons & Dragons) is the only franchise to be nominated for and win both console and computer awards with different games in 2002: Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance for console, and the Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal expansion pack for computer. The original Final Fantasy VII won Console Role-Playing Game of the Year in 1998, and Final Fantasy VII Remake won in 2021.
Franchise | Nominations | Wins |
---|---|---|
Dungeons & Dragons[e] | 11 | 6 |
Final Fantasy | 14 | 5 |
Baldur's Gate | 5 | 4 |
Warcraft | 7 | 3 |
Mass Effect | 3 | 3 |
Diablo | 5 | 2 |
Fallout | 5 | 2 |
Guild Wars | 4 | 2 |
Star Wars | 4 | 2 |
Neverwinter Nights | 3 | 2 |
The Elder Scrolls | 3 | 2 |
Dragon Age | 2 | 2 |
EverQuest | 2 | 2 |
Asheron's Call | 4 | 1 |
Mario | 3 | 1 |
Ultima | 3 | 1 |
City of Heroes | 2 | 1 |
Dark Souls | 2 | 1 |
Dark Age of Camelot | 2 | 1 |
The Legend of Zelda | 2 | 1 |
Deus Ex | 4 | 0 |
Eve Online | 4 | 0 |
Pokémon | 4 | 0 |
Dungeon Siege | 3 | 0 |
Dragon Quest | 3 | 0 |
Megami Tensei[f] | 3 | 0 |
Tales | 3 | 0 |
The Witcher | 3 | 0 |
Cyberpunk 2077 | 2 | 0 |
Dark Cloud | 2 | 0 |
Divinity | 2 | 0 |
Fable | 2 | 0 |
Kingdom Hearts | 2 | 0 |
Ni no Kuni | 2 | 0 |
Pillars of Eternity | 2 | 0 |
Persona | 2 | 0 |
Phantasy Star | 2 | 0 |
Suikoden | 2 | 0 |
Wild Arms | 2 | 0 |
Xeno | 2 | 0 |